After a class change that nearly forced me to drop at least one class, I now have a final class schedule for the Spring 2008 semester. You’ll probably notice that there are no psychology courses in this line up. That’s because I’m considering changing my major, and I need a break from all of the psychology stuff for now.

Frankly, if I could get away with it - which I can’t - I would take only the Korean Language & Culture class and the karate class. That would be the six credit hours needed for part time, but unfortunately my funding is based on my attendance. That’s both grades and credit hours, and I’m a ‘po boy ya know?

• Mondays
8:00 - 8:50 AM : Korean Language & Culture II
9:00 - 9:50 AM : The Craft of Fiction
2:00 - 3:15 PM : General Literature
• Tuesdays
8:00 - 8:50 AM : Korean ..
7:00 - 7:50 PM : Karate (Intermediate)
• Wednesday = Monday’s schedule
• Thursday = Tuesday’s schedule
• Friday
8:00 - 8:50 AM : Korean ..
9:00 - 9:50 AM : The Craft of Fiction

So a lot of writing and studying. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to do a lot of senseless, silly reports on some nonsensical books for the English class. Far be it for a class to focus on its subject matter and not fluff up its schedule with gads of boring “blah”.

~Steph

Grades are in for the Fall 2007 semester. Unfortunately I broke my 4.0 GPA run, but I’m still doing pretty good me thinks. Hopefully next semester I will be able to bring my GPA back up to 4.0; we shall see!

It will be a challenge because (of course!) I am enrolled in Korean Language & Culture Level 2. These classes require a great amount of time and effort to pass with a good grade.

Here are my grades for Fall 2007:

• LIFE SPTS: KARATE(BEGINNING)
Grade: P
• DRAWING I
Grade: B
• KOREAN LANGUAGE & CULTURE I
Grade: A
• LIFETIME FITNESS CONCEPTS
Grade: A
• ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Grade: A
• Credits: 13.00
• Semester GPA: 3.7500
• Total GPA: 3.8889

One “B”, and it brings me down so much. Harumph! I insist on 3.9999! lol Yeah, yeah, I know that it doesn’t work like that.

Anyway, there’s that. Here’s to crossing fingers for next semester…

~Steph

well this semester is pretty much over. there’s one more week and one more test and that’s it. then it’s one month of vacation before the Spring semester begins.

so..

• passed my karate test. technically i hold an orange belt in shito-ryu karate-do genbu-kai now, but they didn’t have a belt in my size on the night of the testing so i don’t physically possess the belt. whoops, but oh wells.
• in all seriousness i have almost definitely failed my drawing class. i hated that class all semester and it’s the one thing that made this semester lose some of its enjoyment. go figure.
• i don’t know what my score in Korean is, but i think that i passed the test. the instructor is leaving for another state this weekend, so i won’t be seeing our test results. i’ll just see my final score when the university gets around to posting them. it’s sad, i really liked this class.. it was so much fun, and our instructor was a great person. i’ll actually miss it all.
• abnormal psychology isn’t through yet. we have one more test next thursday. current score in this class is 85/100, which is pathetic compared to what i absolutely could have made otherwise but hey, the next test should bring that up to 90 or so, so it’s all good in the end.
• oh, and “life time fitness concepts”… i guess i passed that? i have no idea, nor do i know what my grade will be in that class.

I am concerned about my GPA as a result of the drawing class and possibly the final grade in lifetime fitness. after all, i attend the university on funding that i receive based solely on my grades. on the other hand i guess this shows that i’m only human and that i have my limits too.

it’s been a strange semester. it’s simultaneously been both the best semester, thanks almost specifically to the Koreans on campus (you’ve all just been great ^.^), and the worse.

sure i’ll have to repeat drawing some time in the future, but i have a better idea of what to expect and hell, i may just create some drawings before re-enrolling into that class, put them up some place, and then use those drawings at the end of the semester for my out-of-class work. that way i have no farking rush to get crap done. gods, but i can’t express enough how much i loathed that class’ out-of-class requirements.

imagine being required to calculate a 30 to 60 minute mathematical formula every day, at home, as a class requirement for no other reason than the instructor loves their subject too much and thinks that no one should think that it’s a big deal and should have all of the time in the world for their oh-so-precious bull shit. then at the end of the semester, just because nothing else that you’re doing could possibly be of equal or greater importance, you have to do five extra long equations during dead week.

ain’t that cute? yeah. only it they were drawing assignments and not mathematical equations, but they’re both the same to me and now you’re getting the idea.

anyway enough of that. now i’m just getting all fucking emo.

this isn’t the tone that i had in mind when i started out this post. i’m kind of starting not to care though, ya know?

i need that fucking vacation.

I passed last night’s karate test and will receive my orange belt tomorrow evening. They didn’t have my size on the evening that I took the test. More info & photos later.

Why oh why did I take an art class? No, I remember why. It was in hopes of picking up the ability to draw simple illustrations for the stories that I write. Bah! What an idealistic fool I can be!

I just spent about an hour or so trying to draw one of the three required out-of-class drawings. It didn’t go so well…. at all.

Sheesh, this is a nightmare.

As this semester quickly draws to a close, my instructors are quickly piling on more stuff to do and study:

• I have to…
…draw one or two full sized drawings per day for the rest of the week. This is purely homework and does not include finishing the artwork projects in class, which I think we have one or two more of those to do.
…memorize a three minute conversation in Korean for the spoken portion of the Korean language test, and my partner has nominated me to write the rest of the conversation.
memorize the spelling and meaning of several other Korean words, phrases, and grammatical rules for the written portion of the test. Thankfully I understand most of the words’ meanings already..
study for and pass (IIRC) two additional psychology tests, one of which is tomorrow
pass my karate test to gain my orange belt

That’s what I remember off of the top of my head.

The artwork is due on December 7th, and the due dates for the rest of the work arrives quickly after that.

Today I spent the entire day at the campus library with the exception of a one hour lunch. I done nothing but study Korean. My recommendation to the library would be to get more comfortable chairs (please).

You know, if it wasn’t for the artwork I would still be enjoying this semester. Gods, but I can’t get out of this drawing class fast enough… I’m going to miss the Korean class though.

Well, anyway, I’m enrolled in Korean level 2 for this coming Spring semester. Hah! ;D I am also going to do my best to go to Korea sometime this Spring (or there abouts). Perhaps I’ll even stay there for a year, but that is absolutely undecided at the moment.

Later folks,
~Steph

A few days ago at my university there was an event called “Tastes & Sounds of Nations”. The Korean Culture Club had music and food available at the event and I really wanted to go, but wouldn’t you know that I got busy and forgot about it. Bah!

There are a couple of pals who would have been nice to hang with as well.

There’s not much else to say, this post is just to vent about how disappointed I am that I missed the event. I’ll have to wait for Spring and Korean Culture Day to attend a similar event and darn it, I don’t want to wait! :-/

~Steph

This morning I signed the sheet saying that I’ll be going to Korea in May. Wow, I must be crazy. Now it will be a matter of paying for the ticket…

Yesterday in Korean class we watched one of the instructor’s movies called My Sassy Girl. It was a great movie, and I just found out (via IMDB) that it was based on a real experience. That’s so cool! My Sassy Girl @ IMDB.

The movie is a very funny, very romantic, occasionally sad flick. I’m definitely glad that we had the opportunity to watch it, and it was my first Korean movie. So, very good first impression!

If you’re interested in foreign films then you should definitely look into this one. It’s old, being released in 2001 I think, but it’s still well worth watching.

Here’s the movie’s trailer with English subtitles:

Enjoy!
~Steph

Technorati Tags: movies, Korean, korean movie, foreign movie, foreign films

Hello folks!

I have to admit, today was a pretty good day. This morning I still wasn’t entirely certain if I wanted to go, but I got cleaned up and went anyway. I’m glad that I did.

First, the food was great. The folks who done the cooking all done a good job. It was the first time that I had Korean food, and it was a good first impression! The kimchi was a surprise in that, in American terms, one can almost think of it as a salad with very spicy dressing. It’s good stuff.

However, I would have to say that I liked the kimchi pancake (”김치전”?) a bit more, but only because the spicy food was giving me the sniffles!

The bulgogi (”불고기”?) was the dish that everyone in the states would be most familiar with. A very simple way to describe it would be BBQ beef with a sweet sauce. Seriously yum, it’s the one that I liked the most from a familiarity point of view.

The rice was rice. There’s not much to say about it other than that, but it was decent and served its purpose.

Unfortunately those are the only foods that I had. It’s my own fault. They had others, but I hadn’t eaten breakfast so I had way too much on my plate. After eating all of that I had no room for their other dishes.

Aside from the food I also enjoyed a nice conversation with a classmate that lasted for about an hour (or so?). We snapped some pics (not shared here due to privacy concerns), which was fun, and got to know each other a bit more, and after that I walked over to the movie.

They showed Joint Security Area, which turned out to be darn good movie with a very tragic ending. It’s the type of film that takes the viewer through multiple twists, showing parts of the story’s time-line at different moments through out the movie.

It turned out to be a very good day, and to think that I came so close to missing all of that.

Of course, I also got in my 3 to 5 mile walk this evening, but that’s unrelated to everything else.

Good night, all!
~Steph

Technorati Tags: Korean, Chu’sok, chusok, Han-gawi, Korean thanksgiving, thanksgiving, Chuseok, Hangawi